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From an idea through a patent to applications
From an idea through a patent to innovative applications
Researchers, inventors and developers shape the future. The Austrian Patent Office protects intellectual property.
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2019 was a record year for Austrian inventors: 11,731 patents from Austria were filed all around the world. Leonore Gewessler, Minister for Climate Protection, was delighted with this record: “We had more patents from Austria than ever before. Particularly many patents were filed in the field of climate protection – we are among Europe’s best in this regard. This is very important as innovations and inventions will play a major role in the fight against the climate crisis.”
Austria’s inventions to protect the climate
When you look at the filings at the European Patent Office – the last available data come from 2017 – you will see that Austria is doing very well in three important areas of green technologies: Environmental management, environment-friendly buildings and climate-friendly transport technologies. The number of Austrian patent filings are far above the EU-average in these areas. When it comes to climate-friendly transport technologies, Austria ranks second behind Denmark and filed almost 50 percent more patents than the average of the EU innovation leaders Sweden, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands.
These figures show that specific research promotion with programmes such as “City of the Future” and “Mobility of the Future” hit the mark, making use and extending Austria’s research and development know-how. Furthermore, these subsidies from the Ministry of Climate Protection allow research results to be turned into real-life innovations that end up on the markets and in everyday life. “Innovations are the basis for our development as a society and thanks to inventions we can meet the challenges of tomorrow,” Minister Gewessler says. “Patents play a significant role in this regard because they prove that ideas can be turned into usable innovations. I am therefore particularly happy that people and businesses from Austria filed more patents in 2019 than ever before. Those who do research, invent and develop are the ones who shape the future. The Austrian Patent Office is working hard to make patent filings and trademark registrations possible, and offers more than just the core tasks of a patent office. There are special services to make the first steps in protecting your ideas and brands. And we notice that these services see higher demand.” When presenting the Austrian Patent Office’s annual report and the latest data, its President Mariana Karepova went into more detail: “Austria’s inventors and creative minds were extremely active in 2019. We registered six percent more trademarks and saw higher demand in patent services compared to the previous year. Our IP Academy taught about
Photo: Österreichisches Patentamt/APA-Fotoservice/Reither Helmut List and his company AVL List is topping the ranking once more.
President of the Austrian Patent Office Mariana Karepova and Federal Minister for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology Leonore Gewessler
2,000 newcomers how to protect their intellectual property. Last year, just in time before the Covid crisis, we turned all our services fully digital. This has helped us a lot to keep providing our services during the lockdown.”
The lockdown has left its mark, says Karepova. Trademark registrations were hit the hardest with numbers going down by 30 percent in April and May. “That is hardly surprising,” she says. “It is hard to position a new logo on the market if all the stores are closed. When it comes to patents, individual private inventors were affected the most; they probably hesitated to file their patents due to financial reasons.” Patent filings of businesses remained stable, however. “Inventions that were in the works already before the Covid crisis were filed for a patent anyway. But we will have to wait and see how the economic crisis will affect research, development and patents in the future.”
Numbers in detail
The Austrian ranking 2019 is topped once more by AVL List with 169 (utility) patents, followed by Julius Blum and Engel. In total, 2,724 patents were filed at the Austrian Patent Office. The leading province with 642 filings was Upper Austria – that is ten percent more than in 2018. The next two provinces were Styria with 463 filings and Vienna with 436. You have the highest chance of meeting an inventor in Vorarlberg: Austria’s westernmost province comes first in the ranking of inventions per capita.
“Electrifying power trains is a key technology for sustainable CO2 reduction,” says Helmut List, CEO of AVL List. “At AVL List we see both a race and a cooperation of different technologies in the fields of primary energies, energy carriers and power trains. In the last three years AVL has filed almost one hundred patents just focusing on hydrogen and fuel cells.”
Trademarks and innovations
2019 saw a strong increase in trademark registrations. 6,261 trademarks were registered at the Austrian Patent Office, which is six percent more than in 2018. Most trademarks were registered in Vienna (1,852), followed by Lower Austria (866) and Upper Austria (748).
Overall, almost 11,000 innovations were brought forward at the Patent Office, not all of them regarding patents or trademarks: The Office’s services saw high demand in 2019, being used in 1,292 cases for inventions, trademarks and designs by Austrian inventors.
Protect your intellectual property
International studies show that start-ups are often forgetting to protect their intellectual property. Only nine percent of all small and medium-sized enterprises in the European Union own trademarks, patents and designs. When you’re looking at patents only, then only 0.8 percent of SMEs in the EU own one. That is far too little, says the Austrian Patent Office who went on to found the IP Academy for this reason. It offers consultation on everything around patents and trademarks.
Other services of the Patent Office are also focusing on newcomers: Charlotte Ohonin is one of them. She used the “Patent Cheque” to protect her idea. Ohonin founded the start-up Norganoid and came up with a device that allows drugs for neurological illnesses such as Alzheimer and Parkinson to be tested on the patient’s brain without touching the body. To achieve this, a miniature of the brain is put on a chip. The technology is called Organ-On-Chip and is slowly becoming a megatrend. “At first we were not aware that we could patent our ideas,” she says. “The Science Park Graz told us about the Patent Cheque and now we are planning to file further patents.” ◆
Photo: Österreichisches Patentamt/APA-Fotoservice/Reither
Norganoid founder Charlotte Ohonin wants to patent further ideas.
Patents
A patent protects your invention. It has to be novel and inventive and must not have been published at the time of application; anything that has been made publicly accessible anywhere in the world, in whatever form, constitutes the state of the art and no longer qualifies as novel.
A patent is a geographically limited exclusive right (monopoly) of limited duration. You alone may produce, sell or use the protected invention in Austria.
N.B. Register your invention, before you go public with it. Remember: “Silence is golden!”
www.patentamt.at
Trademarks
A trademark may consist of any signs, in particular words, including personal names, or designs, letters, numerals, colours, the shape of goods or of the packaging of goods, or sounds, provided that such signs are capable of giving distinctiveness to the goods or services of a company.
It is represented on the register in a manner which enables the competent authorities and the public to determine the clear and precise subject matter of the protection afforded to its proprietor.
c A European trademark protects your brand in the entire
European Union c An international trademark under the Madrid Protocol protects your trademark in more than 120 countries, among them the EU, the United States, China and Japan
